《WOBON》


 Chapter 1

    Editor Roy flung the file away in frustration. His face had turned red and sweaty as his pristine looks turned upside down. At the moment he looked like a seventy year old who had been dragged from his bed in the middle of sleep out to a no man¡¯s land. Huge bags underlined his eyes and he looked as if he had aged twenty years in a short span of few weeks. The cat and mouse that Wobon, the drug lord had been playing with him for the past seven years had robbed Roy of his mental peace.


    Despite producing evidences one after the other, none of his acquaintances in the Narcotics Control Bureau could not bring the case to conclusion. Every time he felt that the drug lord was about to get caught, one or the other loophole presented itself that Wobon exploited to his advantage using the money and connections he had in his pocket and got out of the case scratch free.


    Aniruddh Roy¡¯s career as a journalist spanned two decades. He had been awarded as journalist of the year twice and was considered a well known name in the field but this case had thrown him off wheels. Roaming around the roads of Aizawal in search of evidence against the drug lord suffocated him now. He had given his everything to this case and yet Wobon remained out of his reach. Tired of the boundations laid down upon him by his job and status, Editor Roy decided to quit his job and work on the case as a private investigator. His experience as a crime journalist made him adept enough to do so.


    A day later, he went to the Editor-in-chief of the newspaper resignation in his hands and knocked on the door of his cabin. Once inside Aniruddh bowed his head to greet his boss and smiled courteously. Keeping the envelope on the glass table standing in the middle of the office, he turned to leave trying to avoid giving any explanation for his actions.


    As he kept his hand on the door knob and twisted it clockwise to open, Editor-in-Chief called out to him. ¡®Roy if you have some time to spare, let¡¯s meet at the cafe near the clock tower this evening. I would like to treat you before you and I go our separate ways.¡¯ Editor Roy felt a bit hurt at Chief¡¯s words. Though he was determined to leave the job behind, he thought that Chief would try to stop him or at least argue or reason out telling him that it was a foolish decision. However, to his dismay Chief¡¯s manner seemed too calm and business like.


    That evening around seven thirty, when darkness descended over the clear May sky, Editor Roy entered Cafe Rhino. He had frequented the place with Chief since the beginning of his career, then a lean young man of twenty four who feared public speeches and stammered while speaking. Peers picked on him easily. Chief who used to be their team leader at the time helped Roy in many ways. He served as the young newbie¡¯s mentor and guide who went out of his way to help him establish a successful career in the field.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    Waiting for his mentor to arrive, Roy went to sit on their usual table near the window. It gave him a clear view of the clock tower square which bustled with people. Street lights lined the pavements illuminating the roads that emerged from the square. When Roy first started his job as an intern at the newspaper, Aizawal used to be a quiet city. There was not much to report or so he thought. Thus to advance his career, he often contemplated going to Gwahati or Calcutta (present day Kolkata) to work in some major newspaper. However, once his internship was over, Chief took him under his wing and introduced Roy to the world of crime reporting hooking him onto chasing after drug cartels ever since.


    It took Editor-in-Chief a while to arrive. Roy had already ordered his favourite Darjeeling tea with ginger. Chief seated himself in front of his prot¨¦g¨¦e and waited for the server to leave. He then sipped the aromatic, steamy tea in silence. Once the cup was empty, he set it aside and began, ¡®I understand that things are not going your way and it makes you angry but resignation is not the solution to every problem Roy. What are you going to do once you leave this job? Become Sherlock Holmes? You think that will give you a chance to lead things the way you like? Are you still a teenager with zero knowledge of the workings of real world. Is this what I have taught you all these years?¡¯ Chief bellowed at Roy like he was still a newly hired intern.


    ¡®But Chief..............¡¯ Roy tried to explain his point of view by his mentor had asked him to come to the cafe to set him straight and not to see his favourite disciple throw years of hard work away.


    ¡®I have not come here to listen to your stupid idea. Drink this tea, open your ears and mind, and listen very carefully to what I am going to say. Have you ever heard of Mimawl? It¡¯s a small village lying along the Indo Mayanmar border. There is a lot of notorious activity going on at the place. I want you to go to the village. Rent a small building there, set up an office, and continue under the name of our newspaper as a local branch. I will take care of all the formalities. Build a network of people like we usually do and dig up all the information that you can.


    Try staying in the village for as long as you can. It will help you get closer to your destination. I know it will be tough to live in a small place with minimum amenities but trust me Mimawl is where you will get a chance to do what you wish for without any interference from the higher ups.


    For now, keep coming to the office. I will get the papers ready within a week. And the next time when you think of such dumb ideas, consult me first before flaunting your letter writing skills.¡¯ With this Chief took out his wallet, paid the bill and left.

 Chapter 2

    Piyali Basu and Shalmili Dey had known each other since their days in Journalism School.  After graduating from college both started working for an internet based tabloid in Kolkata that published juicy gossips and scandals involving celebrities. Their job profile included dipping into the lives of celebrities, following them around lo get a glimpse of their hidden activities and then writing articles that garnered excited response from the youth. Young girls and boys awaited eagerly to lap up the contents as soon as it was posted on the webpage of the tabloid.


    For a while, they enjoyed the work. Getting to see and follow their favourite celebrities was like a dream come true. However, with time chasing after youth icons and young models became tiring. There was no substance in the stories they wrote. Mostly they catered to idle gossip mongers who have no regards for anyone¡¯s privacy. The girls now wished to be the kind of journalists who fought for the rights of those who had no one in their corner. They have had their share of fun. Now it was time to become active participants of social revolutions. As journalists they wanted to unearth scams, expose corruption, take down people who leeched off the underprivileged, and bring justice to unheard. This thirst for righteousness led them to question their current job profile.


    In a whim Piyali quit working at the tabloid. As easy as it was for her to sign the resignation letter, finding a new job in a metropolitan city like Kolkata proved to be an uphill task. Shalmili being the calmer one continued working for the tabloid while applying at other places. For weeks the two kept giving interviews and getting rejected. The experience of working for an internet based tabloid was not considered good enough to be hired by newspapers and magazines of repute. Dejected Piyali often wondered if she had made the right choice. After three months and seven days of incessant rain of rejections, Shalmili received an offer to work at a local branch of one of the leading newspapers in Aizawal.


    They were starting a new branch in Mimawl, a village lying at the international land border between India and Myanmar. Since the branch was situated in a tiny village with bare minimum facilities, no good journalist applied for the posts. The salary too was not very high. Thus the newspaper was ready to accept anyone with a little experience in journalism, fluency in English, and a working knowledge of any one of the languages spoken in the state.  The local branch where Piyali and Shalmili were hired was headed by an idealist A. G. Roy. He aimed to fight against and eliminate the menace of drug trafficking spread in the region. Piyali and Shalmili¡¯s experience in stalking celebrities earned them field jobs.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    Inhabited primarily by poor, illiterate, and unemployed people of tribal origin, served as a passage for smuggling contraband. Mizoram, the state within which Mimawl was located lies within close proximity to the Golden triangle area of Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam, popular for opium production and it¡¯s illegal cross border trade. The business of smuggling men, women and children for sex and organ trade thrived in the neighbouring areas. Every street in the village was crawling with pill pushers.


    Piyali and Shalmili befriended Bengali speaking women and using the trivial informations that they got from these women, the two understood connections, linked people to one another, and went after small time drug peddlers, local opium suppliers and other such criminals. The problem though was that most of the people caught or exposed were locals who dealt in small quantities of opium, and marijuana, none of whom actually knew anything about the bigger names in the trade.


    Though the cases they worked upon were mostly low profile, Piyali and Shalmili felt like they were doing something worthwhile. This work gave them much more satisfaction as compared to writing juicy gossips and fake scandals about ill tempered celebrities. It made them feel useful. They now belonged to the class of people who worked for the betterment of the society.


    One day a local informant came rushing to the branch office with the news that a large international consignment of drugs was to be received in a few months in Mamawl by the drug lord himself. It was a small village few kilometres from the international border, far from the capital city of Aizawal thus it was both easy and safe for the cartel to carry out their transactions. Since this involved a large sum of money and a major international supplier, the drug lord was to come to the village next day to instruct the local goons involved.


    The news about the drug lord coming to the village was equally exciting for Piyali and Shalmili. Finally they were to get their chance of a lifetime. If they played their cards right, they would be able to go after the drug lord.


    There was a lot to be done. They needed to devise a failsafe plan. Brimming with enthusiasm, the girls rushed to Editor Roy¡¯s cabin only to find out that he had a completely different assignment waiting for them. A new IPS officer was transferred to the district recently. They were to go and interview him the next day. It was irrational, they protested. On the day they were about to get the biggest scoop of their careers, Editor Roy was sending them to a mere interview. This was not fair. But there was nothing they could do about it. If they wanted to keep working for the newspaper, they had to follow his orders.

 Chapter 3

    Officer Sheikh, the new sheriff transferred to the district held the post of Deputy Commissioner of Police. He was a strict man, widely known for his notoriety. Counting by the number of years he had served in the police department and the number of cases he had solved, DCP Sheikh should easily have been at the level of Joint Commissioner of police, had he not gone beyond his jurisdiction time and again to catch criminals. Seniors were tired of his insubordination while juniors hated his severity. He took no bribes and allowed no one to accept them either. He had a terrible temper. Most people opined that his wife and daughter left him because of that. Others blamed the divorce on his passion for solving crimes.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    In a career spanning thirty six years he hadn¡¯t taken a single day off. Even in pouring rain and thunderstorm the man reported on time. He made no excuses and accepted none from others. He talked to a very few people and trusted even less. He was transferred from Delhi to the district of Aizawal to take care of the drug menace that was spreading its feet relentlessly in the area. He was to work in close coordination with the Narcotics Control Bureau to gather all the required information and capture the head of the drug cartel operating in the area thereby eliminate the web of smuggling once and for all.